textproduct: Quad Cities

KEY MESSAGES

- Strong northwest winds are forecast to develop this morning with sustained speeds of 15 to 25 mph gusts of 30 to 40 mph. Winds are forecast to gust up to 30 mph during the afternoon.

- Snowfall amounts continue to trend downward for Thursday afternoon through Friday. There continues to be an chance of up to an inch of snow east of a Cedar Rapids to Fairfield line.

SHORT TERM /THROUGH TONIGHT/

Issued at 140 AM CST Wed Jan 14 2026

A shortwave is dropping southeastward into western Wisconsin early this morning and is forecast to pass to the east of eastern Iowa and far northwest Illinois through 15 UTC with a cold front moving southward across the area through the same time frame. Left scattered snow showers and flurries in the forecast through 12 UTC along and ahead of the front for far northwest Illinois. Warmest temperatures of the day will occur ahead of the front early this morning. Skies will quickly clear after 12 UTC as this storm system passes to the northeast.

Winds are forecast to quickly increase behind the front with northwest of 15 to 25 mph and gusts up to 30 to 40 mph through this morning with winds diminishing slightly during the afternoon with gusts up to 30 mph. High temperatures for today are forecast to occur ahead of the front early this morning with temperatures during the day ranging from the mid 20s along and north of Highway 30 to the lower 30s in far southeast Iowa, far northeast Missouri and adjacent parts of northwest Illinois.

Ridging at the surface and aloft will slide across the area tonight with winds becoming light and variable after midnight. Skies will remain clear with much colder overnight low temperatures ranging from 10 to 15 degrees above zero.

LONG TERM /THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY/

Issued at 140 AM CST Wed Jan 14 2026

Troughing is forecast to prevail through the long term period. This will result in meridional, steep northerly flow is forecast to prevail into early next week when passing shortwaves will eventually cause the flow aloft to become northwesterly.

After a cold start on Thursday morning, high temperatures on Thursday will be in the upper 20s to lower 30s with help from backing flow ahead of the next clipper system. Southwest winds will pick up an be gusty to 25 MPH on Thursday.

This clipper/digging shortwave will overspread the the area Thursday night through Friday night. This will bring another round or periods of light snow to the area on the warm air advection(WAA) side of the wave. This clipper will also bring another round of gusty northwest winds to the area with gusts up to 30 mph. There could be some light snow accumulations Thursday night into Friday morning, but continued variance among the ensembles and deterministics of amounts and moisture to utilize for snow production make for low confidence as snowfall amounts continue to trend lower across the area. More models show an inch or less for the eastern two thirds of the DVN CWA by Friday morning. This is in contrast to the ECMWF ensembles of only a half inch or so.

Northwest flow aloft continues through midweek with a series of shortwave troughs and ridging moving across the area. Limited moisture is leading to no chances of precipitation at this time. NBM FCST high temperatures in the 20s and teens for the weekend may even be a bit optimistic, even after trending down from previous runs.

AVIATION /06Z TAFS THROUGH 06Z THURSDAY/

Issued at 1127 PM CST Tue Jan 13 2026

A second cold front is forecast to sink southward across eastern Iowa TAF sites through 12 UTC with MVFR ceilings across the area. Ceilings are forecast to quickly lift to VFR after 12 UTC Wednesday. Northwest winds are forecast to increase behind this front with speeds around 20 knots and gusts as high as 35 knots between 8 and 18 UTC. The pressure gradient across the area is forecast to gradually decrease during the afternoon as high pressure slowly builds into the area. Speeds are forecast to drop to 10 to 15 knots by 00 UTC with gusts up to 20 knots possible in the evening.

DVN WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

IA...None. IL...None. MO...None.